Very cool and we should keep subscribed to this thread as the Funcopter takes shape. I really think I need to get one. What a neat thing to have us here after all these years...1 Ezone year is like 3 human years.

While we are being nostalgic here are some photos of my Corona taken in October 2002 when I first got it.

Stable enough in the hover even with training sticks for me to put the TX down and take my own snap

The second shot shows the electrics. It still has that original Atomic Force motor after about 120 hours flying. Looking at in on the shelf the only differences I can see are a carbon tube tail pushrod and grimy brush dust all over the crutch -who said electrics are clean? Of course living by the sea all the shiny metal bits are corroded now

Nowadays I would obviously go straight to brushless but it was too expensive at the time.

I hope the tail drive on the Funcopter proves more durable as I was always stripping the gears. I never did get around to fitting a belt drive.

Here's my old 13 yr. old. Canopy is from a Hurricane 500. Oversized landing gear, which is needed for a trainer heli, is made piano wire and the brackets and runners are made from kitchen cutting board. Motor is a Himax 35 something, label is worn off, Main gear is an idler gear from the Hurricane 500 that I had to make a hub for on the lathe. Depron fin under the tailboom really helps with visibility. If you boogie along at high speed and give it full ail., it will do axial rolls with the best of them. With the extra power of the 1730 Rhino batts., it will come out of a loop at the same altitude as it went in. With TP 2100 batts., half the time it will do a figure 9 into the turf Gave away the rest of the Hurricane 500 to a buddy for parts. Gone through about 8 other helis and this is the only one worth fixing.

First off, EPP is Expanded Polypropylene. I've never seen it in extruded form. Second, Elapor is _not_ EPP. Elapor is kind of a mix between EPS and EPP, except it lacks all the durability of EPP. The Funcopter's canopy should be very durable if it doesn't get torn badly.

The price of this kit is a little high so it won't be an easy sell these days. I'm dying to find out more about the motor as that's a really novel idea to saving one from stripping gears.

One major upside of the Funcopter is that it's being made by a much more (globally) prominent company than LMH. I've already got confirmation that we'll be getting them here - awesome!

I'm dying to find out more about the motor as that's a really novel idea to saving one from stripping gears.

So am I. A direct drive motor means that you could enable the break feature in the ESCs. I wonder if the breaking action would be enough to slow down the rotor and minimize damage if one kills the throttle before crashing.